TimePilot Definitions

Buffer Zones

For more on Buffer Zones, see
this article, which originally appeared in the TimePilot monthly newsletter.

What are Buffer Zones?
When you're ready to extract a pay period, you might find that
you need to include clock-in transactions that occurred just before the pay period started
and clock-outs just after it ended. You can do that automatically if you have set your software
to create "buffer zones"—extra time at the start and end of a pay period. These
can be set by clicking the
Administrative menu and choosing "Change Time Period Buffers." This
situation typically occurs when a company has staff on the clock seven days a
week and 24 hours a day.

In Buffer Zone

The concept of the "In Buffer Zone" can best be described with an example:

Your company's pay period starts Sunday
at 8 a.m. and ends at 7:59 a.m. on a following Sunday. You have an employee who
starts his workday at 8 a.m. Sunday and ends it at 5 p.m. Sunday. It's very
likely in this scenario that the employee will clock in a few minutes early—say,
at 7:55 a.m. That would cause that transaction to fall outside the pay period.

If you don't set an "In Buffer Zone," when you extract your pay
period, the 5 p.m.
clock-out transaction will be included, but because the clock-in transaction
occurred a few minutes before the pay period started, it won't be extracted. This will
result in a "missing" clock-in transaction and will force a supervisor to
manually make a correction.

Setting the "In Buffer Zone" to 25 minutes will instruct the software
to grab any clock-in transactions that occur in the 25 minutes before the pay
period starts and add them to that extracted period. In this case, the 7:55 a.m.
clock-in would be extracted, giving the TimePilot software an accurate set of clock-in
and clock-out transactions.
Note: The "In Buffer Zone" function does not affect clock-out transactions.

Out Buffer Zone

"Out Buffer Zone" is essentially the reverse of "In Buffer Zone." Here's an
example: Your company's pay period starts at Sunday
at 8 a.m. and ends at 7:59 a.m. on a following Sunday. You have an employee who
starts his workday at 11 p.m. Saturday and ends it at 7:45 a.m. Sunday. It's very
likely in this scenario that the employee will clock out a few minutes late—say,
at 8:05 a.m. That would cause that transaction to fall outside the pay period.

If you don't set an "Out Buffer Zone," when you extract your pay
period, the 11 p.m.
clock-in transaction will be included, but because the clock-out transaction
occurred a few minutes after the pay period ended, it won't be extracted. This will
result in a "missing" clock-out transaction and will force a supervisor to
manually make a correction.

Setting the "Out Buffer Zone" to 25 minutes will instruct the software
to grab any clock-out transactions that occur in the 25 minutes after the pay
period ends and add them to that extracted period. In this case, the 8:05 a.m.
clock-out would be extracted, giving the TimePilot software an accurate set of clock-in
and clock-out transactions.
Note: The "Out Buffer Zone" function does not affect clock-out transactions.